dagblog - Comments for "Obama Negotiates with Himself on Oil. Again."

Should have commented on this

miguelitoh2o — Wed, 18 May 2011 01:35:46 +0000

In reply to Obama Negotiates with Himself on Oil. Again.

Should have commented on this yesterday jamie, (when I first read it). Now I feel compelled to as you've got only 158 "reads" a day later. Great blog!

I'm a little more hopeful

Jamie Friedland — Mon, 16 May 2011 17:36:23 +0000

In reply to Yep; nasty. I put it up In

I'm a little more hopeful about fracking regulation than I am oil. Flammable and poisoned drinking water seem to get people concerned even more than vivid oil spill imagery. Also, the practice and propaganda are less established.

Exactly. What pisses me off

Jamie Friedland — Mon, 16 May 2011 17:29:33 +0000

In reply to Whipple: The Republican bills

Exactly. What pisses me off is why do we engage in the charade? Why would we possibly want to perpetuate the GOP lie that drilling is a solution to this problem? Like Obama positioning himself behind offshore drilling before BP, all we stand to gain from joining the GOP in supprorting fake solutions is that then we too can be blamed when they - shockingly - don't work.

I agree with you about the

Jamie Friedland — Mon, 16 May 2011 17:24:50 +0000

In reply to Great blog, Jamie. What is

I agree with you about the futility and silliness of this whole situation, but I don't think the administration is attempting to court oil companies. And sadly we could be underestimating the effect on voters. What makes this all so ridiculous is that it's not based on reality anymore. The GOP position is that drilling is the solution to the problem. So regardless of whether or not it actually solves anything, Obama has made a "bipartisan" move here, which scores political points and reinforces his campaign narrative. With nothing else to talk about, if that's the tune pundits sing, that's what a lot of people will take from this episode. Then in a few months when gas prices drop back down again enough to at least fade from the headlines, he could come out ahead and be rewarded for this.

I'd be a bit surprised, but I think that's closer to the actual political calculation at the moment. And on a personal note, I'd like to think he's not trying to piss us off just for the hell of it (although that too could help him with moderates).

Whipple: The Republican bills

Donal — Mon, 16 May 2011 17:00:42 +0000

In reply to Obama Negotiates with Himself on Oil. Again.

Whipple: The Republican bills and the President’s “capitulation” are largely political posturing in advance of the 2012 elections. A new study of the Alaskan petroleum reserve – not to be confused with ANWR (Arctic National Wildlife Reserve) which remains off limits – shows that the region contains much less oil than previously believed. The reserve was opened for drilling by Congress in 1980 but recent auctions have drawn limited industry interest. If there is much oil off the Atlantic coast, it is likely to be years before exploratory drilling begins and many more years before any oil found is exploited in significant quantities. In short, the whole furor is a charade to convince the voters that Congress is doing something about high gas prices, while in reality there is little that can be done. The exercise is similar to the umpteenth investigation of oil speculation that was launched by the administration a few weeks ago.

Yep; nasty. I put it up In

we are stardust — Mon, 16 May 2011 16:36:27 +0000

In reply to Obama Negotiates with Himself on Oil. Again.

Yep; nasty. I put it up In the News a couple days ago, and Miguel added this from washington's blog:

"Under probing questioning by Senator Cantwell, Exxon Mobil CEO Rex W. Tillerson admitted that oil should be $60-70 dollars a barrel based on supply and demand" with video.

As a smart electoral move, Obey's mostly right, IMO. But if you see it more as a campaign finance move, it makes more sense. Plus it doesn give Obama some room to claim he's trying ta help. Now he and his team have to know how the hedge fund markets help determine prices, too, and maybe there will be some modifications to those regulatory rules, but I doubt it, myself.

But add into it the fact that he hired Gene Sperling to his team, and Sperling said about the dangerous, water-killing practice of fracking for natural gas:

‘The natural gas industry should support "common sense" regulation to ease public worries about potential water contamination from hydraulic fracturing, a drilling practice vital to the U.S. shale gas boom.’

"Common sense regulation that builds the public trust that fracking does not put at risk clean or safe drinking water is not the obstacle to natural gas extraction," said Sperling.

Ha ha ha ha! No mention of putting natural gas back under the Safe Drinking Water Act , nossir, just a friendly reminder that the industry rules all, and will obviously be able to convince us that fracking is not dangerous. Which they are doing massively now on the teevee and internet.

Enough of this stuff starts to add up to the fact that...well, draw your own conclusions. I have.

Great blog, Jamie. What is

Obey — Mon, 16 May 2011 16:04:37 +0000

In reply to Obama Negotiates with Himself on Oil. Again.

Great blog, Jamie. What is silly about this move is that no one cares what the administration says they're doing. People care about the price of gas. If what the administration is doing won't move the price of gas, then it won't affect people's vote. And the administration presumably (?) knows all the stuff you just laid out - i.e. that they can't move the gas price. So basically this is just to piss off progressives and please oil companies as far as I can see. But there is nothing he can do to move the oil companies over from the GOP, so it won't actually placate them much.

So this looks like a net loss from a purely mercenary campaign perspective imho.